Audio type detection

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence-based processing can be used to classify audio information received from an audio input unit. In an example, audio information can be received from a microphone configured to monitor an environment. A processor circuit can identify identifying one or more features of the audio information received from the microphone and use a first applied machine learning algorithm to analyze the one or more features and determine whether the audio information includes an indication of an abnormal event in the environment. In an example, the processor circuit can use a different second applied machine learning algorithm, such as a neural network-based deep learning algorithm, to analyze the same one or more features and classify the audio information as including an indication of a particular event type in the environment.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This patent application claims the benefit of priority of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/632,421, entitled “System andMethod for Audio Type Detection”, filed on Feb. 20, 2018, which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

An intelligent assistant device can include a software-implemented agentthat can perform tasks or services for a user. The performed tasks canbe based on a user input, device location awareness, and informationfrom a variety of online sources, among other things. Intelligentassistant devices, sometimes referred to as “smart speakers”, can beused in home or office environments. The devices include one or moremicrophones for receiving a voice-based or other audible input signal,and include one or more speakers for relaying information to a user.They can also include touch panels such as security system touch panelsor control panels with microphones, speakers, and/or touch interfaces orcan include a headless device. Use cases for such devices generallyinclude responding to audio-based command, touch, or gestures, and/ordisplay of video or other information. These devices and user inputmechanisms are used to control other smart devices such as securitysensors, lights, appliances, televisions and others.

In some examples, an assistant device can retrieve various informationin response to a user inquiry, such as information about weatherconditions, traffic, news, stock prices, user schedules, and retailprices, among other things. Some intelligent assistant devices performconcierge-type tasks such as making dinner reservations, purchasingevent tickets, and making travel arrangements, and some can beconfigured to automatically perform various data management tasks basedon online information and events, including without user initiation orinteraction.

SUMMARY

The present inventors have recognized, among other things, that aproblem to be solved can include augmenting one or more functions of anaudio assistant device for safety, security, monitoring, orsurveillance, and reducing false positive detections of adverse eventsor other events that can be deemed or understood to be of little or nosignificant interest. The present subject matter can help provide asolution to this problem, such as by using machine learning-basedprocessing of audio information from a monitored environment to detectone or more events as indicated by the audio information. In an example,the solution can include using machine learning to process image and/oraudio information to detect events in the environment.

Aspect 1 can include or use subject matter (such as an apparatus, asystem, a device, a method, a means for performing acts, or a devicereadable medium including instructions that, when performed by thedevice, can cause the device to perform acts, or an article ofmanufacture), such as can include or use a method for using artificialintelligence-based processing to classify audio information receivedfrom an audio input unit. Aspect 1 can include receiving audioinformation from a microphone configured to monitor an environment and,using a processor circuit, identifying one or more features of the audioinformation received from the microphone, and using a first appliedmachine learning algorithm to analyze the one or more features,determining whether the audio information includes an indication of anabnormal event in the environment, and using a different second appliedmachine learning algorithm to analyze the same one or more features,classifying the audio information as including an indication of aparticular event type in the environment. In an example, Aspect 1 caninclude generating an alert about the particular event type.

Aspect 2 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of Aspect 1, to optionally include classifying the audioinformation includes confirming or refuting the indication of anabnormal event in the environment.

Aspect 3 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 or 2 to optionallyinclude using the first applied machine learning algorithm includesusing the processor circuit to use support vector machines or a neuralnetwork to determine whether the audio information includes theindication of the abnormal event.

Aspect 4 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 3 tooptionally include the first applied machine learning algorithm includesa neural network-based deep learning algorithm.

Aspect 5 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 4 tooptionally include using the first or different second applied machinelearning algorithm includes using the processor circuit embedded in asmart speaker device.

Aspect 6 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 5 tooptionally include using the different second applied machine learningalgorithm includes using the processor circuit to use a deep learningneural network-based algorithm to classify the audio information.

Aspect 7 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 6 tooptionally include classifying the audio information includesidentifying whether the audio information includes an acoustic signatureof one or more of breaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, a securityalarm, a fire alarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm, human voices, orhuman crying.

Aspect 8 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 7 tooptionally include determining a loudness characteristic of the receivedaudio information and wherein the identifying the one or more featuresof the audio information is conditioned on the loudness characteristicexceeding a specified minimum loudness threshold.

Aspect 9 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 8 tooptionally include identifying the one or more features of the audioinformation includes determining a power spectrum or spectrogram, andwherein the determining whether the audio information includes theindication of the abnormal event includes using the power spectrum orspectrogram.

Aspect 10 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 9 tooptionally include segmenting the received audio information intooverlapping frames, and wherein the identifying the one or more featuresof the audio information includes using at least a first one of theframes.

Aspect 11 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 10 tooptionally include generating the alert includes communicating an alertto a user who is associated with a smart speaker, wherein the smartspeaker includes the microphone.

Aspect 12 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 11 tooptionally include providing training data for use by the first and/ordifferent second applied machine learning algorithm. In an example, thetraining data can include hard negative target samples and/or caninclude positive target samples. The target samples, positive ornegative, can be mixed with one or more background noise sources.

Aspect 13 can include, or can optionally be combined with the subjectmatter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 12 to include oruse, subject matter (such as an apparatus, a method, a means forperforming acts, or a machine readable medium including instructionsthat, when performed by the machine, that can cause the machine toperform acts), such as can include or use a system for performingautomated audible event detection and classification. In an example,Aspect 13 can include an audio sensor configured to monitor anenvironment and a processor circuit configured to identify one or morefeatures of the audio information received from the microphone and use afirst applied machine learning algorithm to analyze the one or morefeatures and determine whether the audio information includes anindication of an abnormal event in the environment. Aspect 13 caninclude the processor circuit further configured to use a differentsecond applied machine learning algorithm to analyze the same one ormore features and classify the audio information as including anindication of a particular event type in the environment. In an example,Aspect 13 can include the processor circuit further configured tocommunicate an alert about the particular event type to a user of thesystem.

Aspect 14 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of Aspect 13, to optionally include or use a memorycircuit that includes a reference data set for use by the first ordifferent second applied machine learning algorithms, wherein thereference data set includes positive target samples and hard negativetarget samples, and wherein at least a portion of the positive targetsamples are mixed with background noise information.

Aspect 15 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 13 or 14 tooptionally include the audio sensor and the processor circuit embeddedin a smart speaker or camera device.

Aspect 16 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 13 through 15 tooptionally include the processor circuit configured to use the differentsecond applied machine learning algorithm to classify the audioinformation as including an acoustic signature of one or more ofbreaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, a security alarm, a fire alarm,a smoke alarm, a water alarm, human voices, or human crying.

Aspect 17 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 13 through 16 tooptionally include a processor circuit configured to determine aloudness characteristic of the received audio information and whereinthe processor is configured to identify the one or more features of theaudio information only when the loudness characteristic exceeds aspecified minimum loudness threshold.

Aspect 18 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of one or any combination of Aspects 13 through 17 tooptionally include the processor circuit configured to identify a powerspectrum or spectrogram of the audio information, and wherein the one ormore features of the audio information includes the power spectrum orspectrogram.

Aspect 19 can include, or can optionally be combined with the subjectmatter of one or any combination of Aspects 1 through 18 to include oruse, subject matter (such as an apparatus, a method, a means forperforming acts, or a machine readable medium including instructionsthat, when performed by the machine, that can cause the machine toperform acts), such as can include or use a smart speaker for monitoringactivities in an environment. In Aspect 19, the smart speaker caninclude an audio receiver circuit configured to receive acousticinformation from a microphone in an environment and generate a series ofoverlapping audio sample frames representative of the acousticinformation. In an example, Aspect 19 can include a processor circuitconfigured to identify a power spectrum of the acoustic informationreceived from the microphone when the power spectrum indicates that theacoustic information includes an audible event and the audible event hasgreater than a specified threshold loudness characteristic and use afirst applied machine learning algorithm to analyze the power spectrumof the acoustic information and determine whether the acousticinformation includes an indication of an abnormal event in theenvironment. In an example, in Aspect 19, the processor circuit can beconfigured to use a neural network-based deep learning algorithm toanalyze the same power spectrum of the acoustic information and classifythe acoustic information as including an indication of a particularevent type in the environment. In an example, in Aspect 19, theprocessor circuit can be configured to communicate an alert about theparticular event type to a user of the system.

Aspect 20 can include or use, or can optionally be combined with thesubject matter of Aspect 19, to optionally include the processor circuitconfigured to classify the acoustic information as including an acousticsignature of one or more of breaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, asecurity alarm, a fire alarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm, humanvoices, or human crying, and can include the processor circuitconfigured to communicate to the user a portion of the acousticinformation that corresponds to the acoustic signature.

Each of these non-limiting Aspects or examples can stand on its own, orcan be combined in various permutations or combinations with one or moreof the other examples.

This Summary is intended to provide an overview of subject matter of thepresent patent application. It is not intended to provide an exclusiveor exhaustive explanation of the invention. The detailed description isincluded to provide further information about the present patentapplication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numeralscan describe similar components in different views. Like numerals havingdifferent letter suffixes can represent different instances of similarcomponents. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, butnot by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the presentdocument.

FIG. 1 illustrates generally an example of a system that includes anaudio-video assistant device.

FIG. 2 illustrates generally an example of the system of FIG. 1 incommunication with various computing devices FIG. 3 illustratesgenerally an example of a processor circuit.

FIG. 4 illustrates generally an example that can include determiningwhether audio information includes an indication of an abnormal event.

FIG. 5 illustrates generally an example of a method that can includegenerating an audio signal spectrogram.

FIG. 6 illustrates generally an example of a machine in the form of acomputer system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In an example, an audio assistant device can provide a secure andpersonalized user experience and can enhance productivity andcommunication. In an example, an image sensor can be added to anexisting or legacy audio-only, microphone-based office assistants orsmart speaker to enable additional functions and use cases.

In an example, an audio-video assistant device can include one or moremicrophones, one or more cameras or image sensors, and one or moreprocessor circuits. The device can receive and process audio and videoor image input data about an environment such as to identify or extractinformation about objects and people to determine what or who is presentin the environment. In an example, the input information can be furtherprocessed to identify specific individuals by name or type and one ormore responsive actions can be initiated. The combined audio and visualinformation can enable better system understanding of who can bespeaking or providing commands to the assistant device, and in somecases can be used to eliminate a requirement for a specific wakeword orhotword, that is, an action word or trigger word from the user that isrecognized by a device as a signal to begin monitoring.

In an example, an audio assistant or an audio-video assistant deviceprovides an enhanced security and lifestyle monitoring system. In anexample, audio signal monitoring or audio type detection using thesystems and methods discussed herein can comprise a portion of or can beintegrated with a home or commercial security system or security controlpanel. In an example, a security system or control panel can include oruse a camera, microphone, speaker, display, or other interface. In anexample, a security system can include one or more sensors configuredfor particular uses, such as contact sensors for windows or doors,motion sensors for sensing human or animal presence or movement in anenvironment, or other security sensors. Information from an audio typedetector as discussed herein, such as comprising the system 100, can beused with security system sensor information to provide authenticationor verification of potential security threats or breaches. For example,a glass break even detected using a window sensor can be confirmed orauthenticated using acoustic information analyzed using the audio typedetector.

For example, in a security mode, the device can use its audio receiverand processor to identify audio signatures of any abnormal sounds suchas breaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, a security alarm, a firealarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm, loud voices, crying, or yelling, orany other unusual noise in home, building, or other environment. Anaudio signature can include, for example, amplitude or frequencyinformation corresponding to a particular event or activity. In anexample, the device can use its audio receiver and processor to identifyhuman speech or a conversation when the environment is otherwiseexpected to be vacant. In an example, the device can use artificialintelligence to discern normal from abnormal noises, objects, oractivities in a monitored environment and, when such an abnormal noise,object, or activity is identified, then the device can initiate an alertor alarm.

In an example, a processor circuit can receive information from an audiosensor and continuously process audio from the sensor such assubstantially in real-time. The processor circuit can analyze the audioto determine where an audio source is located in an environment, such asusing a motion detection algorithm. In an example, the processor circuitcan detect and analyze human speech and can be configured to detect oneor more known or unknown individuals in the environment or scene basedon speech patterns, frequency content, or other information.

In an example, an assistant device can be configured to automatically ormanually enter an environment monitoring mode. For example, a user, suchas an individual who is authenticated by the device, can use a commandor trigger word such as “Start Monitoring Mode” to place the device inan environment monitoring mode. The device will then begin anappropriate video and/or audio monitoring algorithm, or set ofalgorithms, provided the user was authorized to initiate such anactivity. In an example, the environment monitoring mode can startautomatically when the user enters or exits a scene or environment, oraccording to a predefined schedule. Various monitoring rules can beprovided to define a type and method of alerting an end user or systemowner. For example, a push notification can be provided to a user'smobile device, and rules governing such notification processing can bestored either in a remote, cloud-based computing environment or can beentered by a user during an initial setup or configuration phase.

In an example, an assistant device according to the present disclosurecan use processor-implemented artificial intelligence to analyze orrespond to information from the audio sensor, from the image sensor, orfrom a combination of audio, video, and/or other monitoring sensors suchas thermostat or other environment condition sensors, door sensors,window sensors, lock sensors, etc. The processor-implemented artificialintelligence, as used herein, generally includes one or both of machinelearning and deep learning. In some instances, one or the other ofmachine learning and deep learning can be used or implemented to achievea particular result. Accordingly references herein to one or the otherof machine learning and deep learning can be understood to encompass oneor both forms of artificial intelligence processing.

Classical or traditional machine learning (sometimes referred to hereinas “ML” or “classical ML”) can include or use algorithms such as BayesDecision, Regression, Decision Trees/Forests, Support Vector Machines,or Neural Networks, among others. Deep learning (sometimes referred toherein as “DL”) can be based on deep neural networks and can usemultiple layers, such as convolution layers. Such DL, such as usinglayered networks, can be efficient in their implementation and canprovide enhanced accuracy relative to classical ML techniques. Inpractice, DL algorithms can be more computationally demanding thanclassical ML algorithms.

In an example, classical machine learning (ML) can be distinguished fromdeep learning (DL). Generally, DL models can outperform classical MLmodels. However, DL models can consume a relatively larger amount ofprocessing or power resources, and such resources can be scarce onembedded platforms such as platforms without dedicated graphicsprocessing cores.

In an example, an audio classification technique can include or use atwo-stage approach. In a first stage, a classical ML model can be used,such as a Support Vector Machines (SVM) model or technique. Other modelssuch as Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Neural networks, or otherscan be used. In a second stage, a DL model can be based on aConvolutional Neural Network (CNN), for example, using a 48×96spectrogram. The DL model can be optimized to balance the competingrequirements of accuracy and edge processing on embedded devices thatcan be power limited. In an example, devices that include an embeddedco-processor such as a DSP or GPU can execute classification techniquesusing more complicated models.

In an example, the audio classification technique can include using aloudness detector to optimize computation time and processing resourceusage. For example, the loudness detector can be used to identify soundsthat have greater than a specified threshold loudness characteristicsuch that only sufficiently loud sounds are further processed. When asufficiently loud sound is detected, then subsequent steps of featureextraction and machine learning and/or deep learning-basedclassifications can be performed.

FIG. 1 illustrates generally an example of a system 100 that includes anaudio-video assistant device 113. The system 100 includes a firstprocessor circuit 102 that can include one or more processing cores, andeach core can have a respective different function. In an example, thefirst processor circuit 102 is a notional circuit that includes multipledifferent discrete processor circuits or cores that are coupled by aninterface 101. In the example of FIG. 1, the first processor circuit 102includes an audio processor circuit 104 and a video processor circuit106. The system 100 includes an audio sensor 105 such as a microphonethat can receive audio signals and provide audio signal information tothe audio processor circuit 104. The system 100 includes an image sensor107 such as a camera that can receive image signals and provide imageinformation to the video processor circuit 106. Although the presentdiscussion includes or refers to the audio-video assistant device 113,it can be understood that an audio-only assistant device, or otheraudio-only monitoring or security device, can be provided with the sameor similar hardware and/or software and can exclude the image sensor 107and/or the video processor circuit 106.

In an example, the audio processor circuit 104 can be a dedicatedhardware unit configured to process audio, while in other examples, theaudio processor circuit 104 can be a software-implemented module that isexecuted on the same or different processor circuit.

In an example, the audio sensor 105 includes one or more microphones,such as an array of microphones, configured to receive one or more audioinput signals such as from a user or from various non-user-basedoccurrences in an environment. In an example, one or more signals fromthe audio sensor 105 can be processed for noise reduction, feedbackelimination, beam forming and automatic gain control.

In an example, the image sensor 107 includes a sensor with a particularfield of view (FOV). In an example, the image sensor 107 includes two180 degree view sensors, such as can be vertically joined back-to-backto provide a 360 degree view of the environment. In another example, theimage sensor 107 includes a camera providing a 180 degree view in ahorizontal direction. Such a single camera can be configured to rotateor look in a circular manner around the environment, and an imagegenerated by such camera can be warped and de-warped for analysis ordisplay purposes.

The first processor circuit 102 can be communicatively coupled to aremote server 108 using a network 110. The network 110 can be anysuitable wired network, wireless network, or a combination of wired,wireless, or other network. In an example, the network 110 includes aLAN or wireless LAN connection, an internet connection, a point-to-pointconnection, or other network connection and combinations thereof. Thenetwork 110 can be any other type of network that is configured totransmit or receive data from host computers, personal devices,telephones, or any other electronic devices. The network 110 can be acombination of an enterprise network (or the Internet) and a cellularnetwork, in which case, suitable systems and methods are employed toseamlessly communicate between the networks, and a mobile switchinggateway can be used to communicate with a computer network gateway topass data between the networks. The network 110 can include or use anysoftware, hardware, or computer applications that can provide a mediumto exchange signals or data in various formats.

The system 100 can include a display 111 for displaying informationgenerated by the first processor circuit 102, and a speaker 112 forproviding audible information generated by the first processor circuit102, such as including audible responses to user inquiries. In anexample, the display 111 and the speaker 112 can be part of a computingdevice, such as a personal computer, a laptop, a smart phone, and thelike.

In an example, the audio sensor 105, the audio processor circuit 104,and optionally the speaker 112, can be integrated in a single device,sometimes referred to as an audio assistant, an intelligent audioassistant device, a voice-controlled virtual assistant (VCVA), or auser-controlled virtual assistant (UCVA). In an example, the imagesensor 107, the video processor circuit 106, and optionally the display111, can be integrated together in a single device, sometimes referredto as a video assistant or an intelligent video assistant device. In anexample, the intelligent video assistant device can be communicativelycoupled to an intelligent audio assistant device using an interface suchas the interface 101 that couples the processor circuits. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 1, the central processor circuit 102, the audiosensor 105, the image sensor 107, the display 111, and the speaker 112can be integrated together to form a device referred to herein as anintelligent audio-video assistant device 113.

Artificial intelligence-based analysis of information from the audiosensor 105 can be performed locally in the audio-video assistant device113 by the audio processor circuit 104 or can be performed elsewhere,such as using the remote server 108. In an example, the audio processorcircuit 104 and/or the remote server 108 can include or access adatabase 109 configured to store, among other things, object templatedata, audio signature data, and other information. In an officeenvironment, the database 109 can store information about one or moreemployees, including names, roles, permitted or expected in/out times,designations, accessible systems, contact lists, calendars, etc. In anexample, valid and recognizable users of a system can be predefined orenrolled or identified by the audio-video assistant device 113 and savedin the database 109. The database 109 can also be in communication withoffice enterprise servers to access office data of one or more users.

In an example, the audio processor circuit 104 can process audioinformation from one or more users, either locally or using the remoteserver 108. Thereafter, the first processor circuit 102 and/or theremote server 108 can use the audio information to decipher userrequests and actions, and automatically service one or more userrequests.

In an example, the first processor circuit 102 can perform a voicerecognition algorithm on audio signals received from the audio sensor105. Voice recognition can include identifying a person from acharacteristic of his or her voice. Voice recognition can be used todetermine who is speaking and/or to determine what is being said.Identification of a person who is speaking can be referred to as“speaker recognition” and identification of what is being said can bereferred to as “speech recognition”. In an example, recognizing aspeaking individual can simplify the task of translating speech insystems that have been trained on a specific individual's voice, or itcan be used to authenticate or verify a speaker's identity. Speakerverification seeks to determine a 1:1 match where one speaker's voice ismatched to one template whereas speaker identification seeks todetermine a match from among N voice templates. In an example, arecognition system can include two phases: enrollment and verification.During enrollment, an individual's voice is recorded and voice features(e.g., frequency components) are extracted to form a voice print,template, or model. In the verification phase, a speech sample or“utterance” is compared against a previously created voice print. Foridentification systems, the utterance is compared against multiple voiceprints to determine a best match, while verification systems compare anutterance against a single voice print.

In an example, the audio processor circuit 104 can authenticate a userand can check for permission to put the device in one or more differentmodes, such as including a monitoring mode. In the monitoring mode, thesystem 100 can use information from the image sensor 107 and/or theaudio sensor 105 to detect objects in the environment, capture motioninformation about the detected objects, track and classify objects inthe environment, and detect and recognize sounds. In response, the firstprocessor circuit 102 can use a rules-based framework to determinewhether to sound an alarm or alert a particular system operator or user.In an example, the rules-based framework includes using a combination ofdata from one or more auxiliary sensors that are configured to transmitinformation to the system 100.

FIG. 2 illustrates generally an example of the system 100 incommunication with various computing devices 156-1, 156-2, . . . , 156-N(collectively referred to herein as computing devices 156 andindividually referred to as computing device 156 hereinafter), such asusing a second network 152. The system 100 can be implemented using anyor a combination of hardware components and software components, such asthose discussed above in the discussion of FIG. 1, or can be implementedusing another security device, computing system and the like, such thatembodiments of the present disclosure can be used for monitoring orsurveillance purposes.

In an example, the system 100 can interact with users 154-1, 154-2, . .. , 154-N (collectively referred to herein as users 154 and individuallyreferred to as user 154 hereinafter), through the computing devices 156or through applications residing on the computing devices 156. In anexample, the system 100 can be accessed by applications residing on anyoperating system, including but not limited to Android, iOS, and thelike. Examples of the computing devices 156 can include, but are notlimited to, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant, ahandheld device, a smart phone, and a workstation. In an example, thecomputing devices 156 are mobile phones of the respective users 156.Further, the computing devices 156 can be any or a combination of ahardware or a software implementation that can perform monitoring andsurveillance of a place or a zone such as personal computers of users,applications residing on computing devices, computing devices of publicauthorities or enterprises, and the like. Similarly, users 154 can alsobe individuals, organizations, government bodies, etc., such as can usemonitoring and surveillance capabilities.

The second network 152, which can comprise a portion of the network 110from the example of FIG. 1, can include a wireless network, a wirednetwork or a combination thereof that can be implemented as one of thedifferent types of networks, such as the Intranet, a Local Area Network(LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and the like. The second network 152can be a dedicated network or a shared network. In an example, a sharednetwork can represent an association of the different types of networksthat can use variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext TransferProtocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and the like. In anexample, alerts or notifications generated by the system 100 can becommunicated to the computing devices 156 of the users 154 using thesecond network 152.

In an example, an audio assistant (or smart speaker) or other officecomputer device including, e.g., a microphone or speaker, can processaudio commands and determine user actions and requirements along withother types of inputs. Sometimes, an audio assistant operates withoutvideo or visual understanding or processing. Such an assistant devicemay not visually understand a scene or room or a name of an individualissuing a command, but such a device can be configured to use contextclues or other information to learn about its environment and/or aboutone or more users interacting with the device.

FIG. 3 illustrates generally an example of a processor circuit 302 thatcan comprise all or a portion of one or more of the other processorcircuits discussed herein, such as the first processor circuit 102, theaudio processor circuit 104, the video processor circuit 106, or one ormore other processors or circuits. In an example, the processor circuit302 can include one or more processor(s) 303 or processor cores. The oneor more processor(s) 303 can be implemented as one or moremicroprocessor circuits, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digitalsignal processor circuits, central processor circuits, logiccircuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate data based onoperational instructions. Among other capabilities, the one or moreprocessor(s) 303 are configured to fetch and execute computer-readableinstructions stored in a memory 306. The memory 306 can store one ormore computer-readable instructions or routines, which can be fetchedand executed to create or share the data units over a network service.The memory 306 can comprise any non-transitory storage device including,for example, volatile memory such as RAM, or nonvolatile memory such asEPROM, flash memory, and the like.

The processor circuit 302 can comprise an interface(s) 304. Theinterface(s) 304 can comprise a variety of interfaces, for example,interfaces for data input and output devices, referred to as I/Odevices, storage devices, and the like. The interface(s) 304 canfacilitate communication of the processor circuit 302 with variousdevices coupled to the processor circuit 302 such as an input device andan output device. The interface(s) 304 can also provide a communicationpathway for one or more components of the processor circuit 302.Examples of such components include, but are not limited to, variousother processing circuits or engine(s) 308 and data 320.

The processing engine(s) 308 can be implemented as a combination ofhardware and programming (for example, programmable instructions) toimplement one or more functionalities of the processing engine(s) 308.In examples described herein, such combinations of hardware andprogramming can be implemented in different ways. For example, theprogramming for the processing engine(s) 308 can be processor executableinstructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable storage mediumand the hardware for the processing engine(s) 308 can comprise aprocessing resource (for example, one or more processor circuits), toexecute such instructions. In some examples, the machine-readablestorage medium can store instructions that, when executed by theprocessing resource, implement the processing engine(s) 308. In suchexamples, the processor circuit 302 can comprise the machine-readablestorage medium storing the instructions and the processing resource toexecute the instructions, or the machine-readable storage medium can beseparate but accessible to processor circuit 302 and the processingresource. In other examples, the processing engine(s) 308 can beimplemented by other electronic circuitry.

The data 320 can comprise data that is stored or generated as a resultof functions implemented by any of the components of the processingengine(s) 308. In an example, the processing engine(s) 308 can comprisean input receive engine 312, an audio processing engine 310 (e.g.,comprising the audio processor circuit 104), a video processing engine311 (e.g., comprising the video processor circuit 106), an eventidentifier engine 314, a notification engine 316, and other engines 318.

In an example, the input receive engine 312 receives input data from aninput device, such as from the audio sensor 105 and/or from the imagesensor 107. The input data can include, among other things, a sequenceof images of a video stream and audio signals, such as audio signalsthat can be associated with video input data, such as for purposes ofmonitoring and surveillance. In an example, the audio processing engine310 and the video processing engine 311 can process the audio signalsand the video stream respectively. In an example, the video processingengine 311 can extract feature data from the input data to detect one ormore objects in the respective images of the video stream.

In an example, the audio processing engine 310 can process audiocommands received or detected by the audio sensor 105. In an example,the audio commands are selected to cause the system 100 to operate in anassistant mode or a monitoring mode. In an assistant mode, the system100 can be configured to perform tasks or services for a user such as byusing natural language processing (NLP) to match a user voice input toexecutable commands and can provide an audible response to the userthrough an output device such as the speaker 112, or provide some othersystem response. The audio processing engine 310 can continually learnusing artificial intelligence techniques including machine learning anddeep learning.

In a monitoring mode, the system 100 can perform tasks such asenvironment monitoring or surveillance. In an example, changing theoperating mode of the system 100 can be performed when a designated orauthenticated user provides instructions to change the mode. In anexample, user authentication can include a combination of voicerecognition by the audio processing engine 310 and face recognition bythe video processing engine 311. In an example, the system 100 canautomatically configure itself to operate in a monitoring mode based ondetection of the one or more objects. For example, if a designated useris not detected by the system 100 for a pre-configured duration of time,or during a specified interval, then the system 100 can automaticallyenter the monitoring mode. That is, when the designated user is away,the system 100 can set itself to operate in the monitoring mode. In anexample, a user can schedule the system 100 to operate in the monitoringmode for a fixed time during a day. For example, the system 100 can beplaced into the monitoring mode during specified away-times, such as9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. to coincide with a workday.

In an example, the event identifier engine 314 can be used to determinean event by comparing attributes of one or more detected objects oraudio events with pre-defined rules, such that when an event isdetermined a notification can be sent to the user using the notificationcommunication engine 316. For example, a rule can be defined for aparticular object that if the particular object is not detected in animage, then the particular object can be termed as a “missing object”and a notification can be sent to a user using the notification engine316. In an example, the audio processing engine 310, the videoprocessing engine 311, and the event identifier engine 314 can be usedtogether to determine, e.g., missing objects, intrusion by anunidentified person, or other events that can trigger a notification toa user.

In an example, the notification engine 316 can be configured to notifyvarious users based on a set of rules defined for each respective user.For example, if the system 100 is used by three users, user A, user Band user C, separate rules can be defined for each user so that thenotifications can be sent to designated ones of the users only.

In an example, the system 100 can notify a user about detected unusualor abnormal visual events. For example, the system 100 can detect anintrusion into a designated zone or can determine if an individual isloitering or remaining in a particular zone for greater than a specifiedthreshold time duration. In an example, the system 100 is configured todetermine names or other information about detected individuals, if thesystem 100 is pre-configured with such information, and/or to labelindividuals or objects as unknown. In an example, the system 100 candetect and notify a user about regular events, for example, the system100 can alert a user when a package or box or ecommerce delivery or mailis detected in a particular location in a field of view. In an example,system 100 can be used to notify a user about movements or activities ofa pet.

In an example, the system 100 can detect and classify objects andprovide appropriate notifications to a user. For example, an alert suchas “Human-generated sounds detected” can be sent to a computing deviceof the user. In an example, the system 100 can send an alerts withcorresponding video and/or sound information captured by the audiosensor 105 and/or the image sensor 107. In an example, the system 100can have an Application Programming Interface (API) that can be used topush alerts so that a user monitoring the home, office, or any otherdefined pace or zone can remotely monitor and can notify appropriateauthorities in an emergency situation. The system 100 can maintain a logby storing these alerts or notifications and associated video clips andsounds so that they can be reviewed later.

FIG. 4 illustrates generally an example 400 that can include determiningwhether audio information includes an indication of an abnormal event.The example 400 can be performed in whole or in part using the system100, such as using the audio sensor 105 to receive acoustic informationfrom an environment. At step 401, the example 400 can include receivingaudio information from an input unit, such as from the audio sensor 105.In an example, the audio information can include acoustic informationincluding one or more of breaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, asecurity alarm, a fire alarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm, loud voices,crying, or yelling, or any other unusual or abnormal noise in a home,building, or other environment. Generally, the audio information caninclude acoustic information in a range of human hearing (e.g., fromabout 20 Hz to 20 kHz), and in some examples, the audio information caninclude sound pressure information from outside of the range of humanhearing.

At step 402, the example 400 can include determining a loudnesscharacteristic of the audio information received at step 401. In anexample, the audio processor circuit 104 or the first processor circuit102 is configured to determine the loudness of the audio information.Loudness can be measured using an RMS (root mean square) technique orother technique. In an example, to enhance processing efficiency such asfor embedded devices, the square root operation may not be computed. Insuch an example, downstream processing of the RMS result, such as acomparison of an RMS value with a threshold, can include adjusting thethreshold.

At step 403, the example 400 can include determining whether theloudness characteristic determined at step 402 exceeds a specifiedloudness threshold. In an example, the audio processor circuit 104 orthe first processor circuit 102 is configured to perform the thresholdcomparison. The loudness threshold comparison at step 403 can helpreduce false positive alerts. Additionally, subsequent steps that caninclude feature extraction and/or ML or DL based classification can beperformed more efficiently for example because the audio information canhave a high signal to noise ratio.

At step 404, the example 400 can include extracting feature vectorinformation from the same audio information received at step 401 or fromother audio information. For example, the other audio information caninclude information received from the same audio sensor 105 or anotheraudio sensor, such as including information from the same time intervalor from a time-adjacent interval. In an example that includes a machinelearning-based audio type classification, the same feature vector can beused as an input, thereby enhancing efficiency in a multiple stagemachine learning classifier. An example that includes feature vectorextraction or computation is provided in FIG. 5.

At step 405, the method 400 can include classifying the audioinformation using the system 100 to apply classical machine learningusing the feature information determined at step 404. In an example, aclassical ML-based classifier can include or use a linear Support VectorMachine (SVM), Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, neural networks, orother classifier. In an example, step 405 can include determining alikelihood that the audio information received at step 401 includesinformation about an abnormal event. At step 406, the example 400 caninclude determining whether the audio information classified at step 405indicates that the audio information includes audible information aboutan abnormal event. For example, if a result of step 405 is an indicationthat the audio information is likely to include information about anabnormal event, then the method 500 can continue at step 407 with adifferent second classifier to determine more information about or tovalidate the abnormal event. If, however, the result of step 405 is anindication that the audio information not sufficiently likely to includeinformation about an abnormal event, then the method 500 can return tostep 401 to gather subsequent audio information for additional orsubstantially continuous analysis of the environment.

At step 407, the method 400 can include classifying the audioinformation using the system 100 to apply a deep learning-basedclassifier. In an example, step 407 can include or use a DL model thatis based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), for example, using a48×96 spectrogram (see the example of FIG. 5). The DL model can beoptimized to balance the competing requirements of accuracy and edgeprocessing on a particular embedded device.

At step 408, the method 400 can include using the system 100 todetermine whether the audio information classified at step 407 indicatesthat the audio information includes audible information about anabnormal event. For example, if a result of step 408 is an indicationthat the audio information is likely to include information about anabnormal event, then the method 500 can continue to step 409. If,however, the result of step 408 is an indication that the audioinformation not sufficiently likely to include information about anabnormal event, then the method 500 can return to step 401 to gathersubsequent audio information for additional or substantially continuousanalysis of the environment.

At step 409, the method 400 can include generating an alert about theabnormal event as identified at step 408. In an example, informationabout the abnormal event can be communicated or transmitted to a user orcontroller of the system 100, such as optionally including one or moreof the users 154.

FIG. 5 illustrates generally an example of a method 500 that can includegenerating an audio signal spectrogram. In an example, at step 501, themethod 500 can include receiving overlapping audio frames. For example,audio information from the audio sensor 105 can be sampled, such asusing the first processor circuit 102, and the sampled information canbe segmented into frames. In an example, the frames can be sequential ortime-adjacent, or the frames can be overlapping.

At step 502, the method 500 can include applying a windowing function onthe audio frames received at step 501. In an example, the windowingfunction includes a Hamming windowing function or a Hann windowingfunction. The windowing function can be performed using the audioprocessor circuit 104 or another processor circuit.

In an example, a windowing function can be configured to pass frequencyand amplitude information from the audio frames that is most likely toinclude an abnormal event of interest. For example, if the system 100 isconfigured to detect a glass break event then the windowing function canbe configured to pass primarily middle and high frequency audioinformation. However, in an example, using ML-based processing can beconfigured to automatically learn about frequency or other content ofinterest and accordingly an ML-based technique can reduce or eliminate aneed for frequency-based windowing.

At step 503, the method 500 can include determining a power spectrum ofone or more of the audio frames received at step 501. Step 503 can beperformed using the audio processor circuit 104 or another processorcircuit. In an example, step 503 can include determining a powerspectrum of information from one of the audio frames from step 502, suchas following the windowing function processing of the audio frames. Inan example, the power spectrum can be determined at step 503 using afast Fourier transform (FFT) or other signal transform techniques thatcan provide information about a distribution, such as a relative orabsolute distribution, of sound energy at or centered at differentfrequencies.

At step 504, the method 500 can include generating an audio signalspectrogram based on the power spectrum determined at step 503. In anexample, the spectrogram generated at step 504 can include arepresentation of a spectrum or number of different frequencies orfrequency bins that include information from the audio frames. Thespectrogram information can be used as an input to one or more ML or DLclassifiers.

In an example, a problem to be solved includes providing a highlyaccurate event classifier while limiting a processing limit imposed onedge devices, such as audio assistant devices, cameras, or other devicesthat can be configured to operate at the “edge” of a cloud ornetwork-based computing environment. In an example, a solution to theproblem can include curating training data that can be used by edgedevice-based classifiers.

In an example, training data can be bootstrapped with hard negatives.Bootstrapping with hard negatives can include iteratively growing arelatively small set of negative training data examples by selectingnegatives for which the model or classifier provides a false alarm. Forexample, sampling negative samples randomly for model training can berelatively inefficient or inaccurate, leading to high rates of falsealarms. Instead, a training data set can be bootstrapped withconsideration given to one or more particular or relevant sound eventclassification problems. For example, for glass break detection, commonsources of false alarms can include, among other things, kitchen sounds,keys dropping, garage door openers, and others. Hence negative samplecollection for training data can be focused on these and otherscenarios. Then, ML or DL models can be built in bootstrapped stages. Asa result, the models can be trained more rapidly, such as using lessdata, and can offer more efficient execution relative to other previousmodels.

In an example, curating training data can further include training dataaugmentation using realistic interference. For example, to achieve a lowfalse negative rate, some solutions include or use signal sourceseparation or noise reduction, for example to facilitate soundidentification when multiple sounds a present or when the target soundis acquired in a noisy environment. In an example, a solution caninclude using multiple microphones and audio signal pre-processingalgorithms for noise reduction or source separation. Such additionalprocessing can add computational complexity and thus contribute to anincrease in overall time and processing load. In an example, a solutioncan include omitting such pre-processing and instead delegating such“noise” management to an ML or DL analysis step. In an example, thetraining data can be collected in the presence of a variety of differentbut relevant background categories such as TV sounds, music,conversations, pet sounds, highway sounds, and other sounds that cancontribute to noise in an environment. Following acquisition of suchtraining data, positive samples of training data can be augmented, suchas by mixing the various background sources with a target or sound ofinterest, such as glass-break. That is, a positive target sample such asa recording of a glass-break can be mixed with a different secondrecording of a particular kind of background noise and the mixed signalcan be used as training data. The background noise can be frequency oramplitude adjusted to provide a large training data set, or thebackground noise can be tailored to a particular monitored environment.For example, if a monitoring device is placed in a public area near ahighway, then the training data can include target data mixed with avariety of noises associated with a highway.

In an example, mixing one or more background sources with a target canbe performed in software. Accordingly, a number of different trainingsamples is virtually unlimited yet each of the samples can be relevantand can reflect a real-world scenario. One or more models trained usingthe training data can be applied in various ML or DL networks to enhancethe network-based classifiers, such as without using a pre-processingstage. Further, the present technique can enable the present classifiersystems to generate a large number of realistic positive samplesspanning different background environments without having to actuallycapture the data in such environments.

Various use cases can include or use the system 100, the example 400 ofFIG. 4, and/or the example 500 of FIG. 5, to perform audio typedetection or classification and, optionally, notify a user or generatean alert based on the result. Some non-limiting use cases can include(1) recognizing a fire alarm, smoke alarm, water alarm, or other audiblealarm that is sounding in an environment, (2) recognizing a glass breakevent, such as a window break, a door break, or other material break,(3) recognizing a baby crying, (4) recognizing a gun shot or type of gunshot, and (5) recognizing a dog bark or other animal noise. Each of thedifferent use cases can use its own respective training data and caninclude or use different threshold conditions for analysis.

Various aspects of the present discussion can be implemented in the formof a computer programmable product for performing audio and/or videodata receipt and analysis. The computer programmable product can includea set of instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes theprocessor to perform the various methods and techniques as discussedherein.

FIG. 6 illustrates generally an example of a machine 600 in the form ofa computer system within which instructions 1308 can be executed tocause the machine to perform any one or more of the methods discussedherein. In an example, the machine 600 comprises a portion of the system100, or one or more portions of the system 100 comprise an instance ofthe machine 600. The instructions 1308 can include software, a program,an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code that causesor configures the machine 600 to perform any one or more of the methodsdiscussed herein, or portions of such methods. For example, theinstructions 1308 can cause the machine 600 to execute any one or moreof the methods described herein. The instructions 1308 transform ageneral, non-programmed machine into a particular machine configured orprogrammed to carry out the described and illustrated functions.

The machine 600 can operate as a standalone device or can be coupled(e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, themachine 600 can operate in the capacity of a server machine or a clientmachine in a server-client network environment, or as a peer machine ina peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine 600 cancomprise, but not be limited to, a server computer, a client computer, apersonal computer (PC), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook,a set-top box (STB), a PDA, an entertainment media system, a cellulartelephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearable device (e.g., asmart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smart appliance), other smartdevices, a web appliance, a network router, a network switch, a networkbridge, or any machine capable of executing the instructions 1308,sequentially or otherwise, that specify actions to be taken by themachine 600. Further, while only a single machine 600 is illustrated,the term “machine” shall also be taken to include a collection ofmachines that individually or jointly execute the instructions 1308 toperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The machine 600 can include processors 1302, memory 1304, and 1/Ocomponents 1342, which can be configured to communicate with each othervia a bus 1344. In an example, the processors 1302 (e.g., a CentralProcessing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC)processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, aGraphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), anASIC, a Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, orany suitable combination thereof) can include, for example, a processor1306 and a processor 1310 that execute the instructions 1308. The term“processor” is intended to include multi-core processors that cancomprise two or more independent processors (sometimes referred to as“cores”) that can execute instructions contemporaneously. Although FIG.6 shows multiple processors 1302, the machine 600 can include a singleprocessor with a single core, a single processor with multiple cores(e.g., a multi-core processor), multiple processors with a single core,multiple processors with multiples cores, or any combination thereof.

The memory 1304 includes a main memory 1312, a static memory 1314, and astorage unit 1316, both accessible to the processors 1302 via the bus1344. The main memory 1304, the static memory 1314, and storage unit1316 store the instructions 1308 embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1308 canalso reside, completely or partially, within the main memory 1312,within the static memory 1314, within machine-readable medium 1318within the storage unit 1316, within at least one of the processors 1302(e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or any suitable combinationthereof, during execution thereof by the machine 600.

The I/O components 1342 can include a wide variety of components toreceive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information,exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/Ocomponents 1342 that are included in a particular machine will depend onthe type of machine. For example, portable machines such as mobilephones can include a touch input device or other such input mechanisms,while a headless server machine will likely not include such a touchinput device. It will be appreciated that the I/O components 1342 caninclude many other components that are not shown in FIG. 12. In variousexample examples, the I/O components 1342 can include output components1328 and input components 1330. In an example, the I/O components 1342include the audio sensor 105. The output components 1328 can includevisual components (e.g., a display such as a plasma display panel (PDP),a light emitting diode (LED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), aprojector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), acoustic components (e.g.,speakers), haptic components (e.g., a vibratory motor, resistancemechanisms), other signal generators, and so forth. The input components1330 can include one or more cameras, alphanumeric input components(e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receive alphanumericinput, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumeric inputcomponents), point-based input components (e.g., a mouse, a touchpad, atrackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or another pointing instrument),tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touch screen thatprovides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures, or othertactile input components), audio input components (e.g., a microphone),and the like.

In further examples, the I/O components 1342 can include biometriccomponents 1332, motion components 1334, environmental components 1336,or position components 1338, among a wide array of other components. Forexample, the biometric components 1332 include components to detectexpressions (e.g., hand expressions, facial expressions, vocalexpressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measure biosignals (e.g.,blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, perspiration, or brainwaves), identify a person (e.g., voice identification, retinalidentification, facial identification, fingerprint identification, orelectroencephalogram-based identification), and the like. The motioncomponents 1334 include acceleration sensor components (e.g.,accelerometer), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensorcomponents (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.

The environmental components 1336 can include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gasdetection sensors to detection concentrations of hazardous gases forsafety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other componentsthat can provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding toa surrounding physical environment. The position components 1338 caninclude location sensor components (e.g., a GPS receiver component),altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometers that detectair pressure from which altitude can be derived), orientation sensorcomponents (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication can be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 1342 further include communication components 1340operable to couple the machine 600 to a network 1320 or devices 1322 viaa coupling 1324 and a coupling 1326, respectively. For example, thecommunication components 1340 can include a network interface componentor another suitable device to interface with the network 1320. Infurther examples, the communication components 1340 can include wiredcommunication components, wireless communication components, cellularcommunication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components to provide communication via othermodalities. The devices 1322 can be another machine or any of a widevariety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via aUSB).

Moreover, the communication components 1340 can detect identifiers orinclude components operable to detect identifiers. For example, thecommunication components 1340 can include Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components,optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detectone-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code,multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Azteccode, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2Dbar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components(e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, avariety of information can be derived via the communication components1340, such as location via Internet Protocol (IP) geolocation, locationvia Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting an NFC beaconsignal that can indicate a particular location, and so forth.

The various memories (e.g., memory 1304, main memory 1312, static memory1314, and/or memory of the processors 1302) and/or storage unit 1316 canstore one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g.,software) embodying or used by any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. These instructions (e.g., the instructions1308), when executed by processors 1302, cause various operations toimplement the disclosed examples.

The instructions 1308 can be transmitted or received over the network1320, using a transmission medium, via a network interface device (e.g.,a network interface component included in the communication components1340) and using any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols(e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). Similarly, the instructions1308 can be transmitted or received using a transmission medium via thecoupling 1326 (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 1322.

Various Notes

The above description includes references to the accompanying drawings,which form a part of the detailed description. The drawings show, by wayof illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention can bepracticed. These embodiments are also referred to herein as “examples.”Such examples can include elements in addition to those shown ordescribed. However, the present inventors also contemplate examples inwhich only those elements shown or described are provided. Moreover, thepresent inventors also contemplate examples using any combination orpermutation of those elements shown or described (or one or more aspectsthereof), either with respect to a particular example (or one or moreaspects thereof), or with respect to other examples (or one or moreaspects thereof) shown or described herein.

In the event of inconsistent usages between this document and anydocuments so incorporated by reference, the usage in this documentcontrols.

In this document, the terms “a” or “an” are used, as is common in patentdocuments, to include one or more than one, independent of any otherinstances or usages of“at least one” or “one or more.” In this document,the term “or” is used to refer to a nonexclusive or, such that “A or B”includes “A but not B,” “B but not A,” and “A and B,” unless otherwiseindicated. In this document, the terms “including” and “in which” areused as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein.” Also, in the following claims, the terms“including” and “comprising” are open-ended, that is, a system, device,article, composition, formulation, or process that includes elements inaddition to those listed after such a term in a claim are still deemedto fall within the scope of that claim. Moreover, in the followingclaims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merelyas labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements ontheir objects.

Geometric terms, such as “parallel”, “perpendicular”, “round”, or“square”, are not intended to require absolute mathematical precision,unless the context indicates otherwise. Instead, such geometric termsallow for variations due to manufacturing or equivalent functions. Forexample, if an element is described as “round” or “generally round,” acomponent that is not precisely circular (e.g., one that is slightlyoblong or is a many-sided polygon) is still encompassed by thisdescription.

Method examples described herein can be machine or computer-implementedat least in part. Some examples can include a computer-readable mediumor machine-readable medium encoded with instructions operable toconfigure an electronic device to perform methods as described in theabove examples. An implementation of such methods can include code, suchas microcode, assembly language code, a higher-level language code, orthe like. Such code can include computer readable instructions forperforming various methods. The code can form portions of computerprogram products. Further, in an example, the code can be tangiblystored on one or more volatile, non-transitory, or nonvolatile tangiblecomputer-readable media, such as during execution or at other times.Examples of these tangible computer-readable media can include, but arenot limited to, hard disks, removable magnetic disks, removable opticaldisks (e.g., compact disks and digital video disks), magnetic cassettes,memory cards or sticks, random access memories (RAMs), read onlymemories (ROMs), and the like. The above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-describedexamples (or one or more aspects thereof) can be used in combinationwith each other. Other embodiments can be used, such as by one ofordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. TheAbstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b), to allow thereader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. Itis submitted with the understanding that it will not be used tointerpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in theabove Detailed Description, various features can be grouped together tostreamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intendingthat an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather,inventive subject matter can lie in less than all features of aparticular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description as examples or embodiments,with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment, and it iscontemplated that such embodiments can be combined with each other invarious combinations or permutations. The scope of the invention shouldbe determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the fullscope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for using artificial intelligence-basedprocessing to classify audio information received from an audio inputunit, the method comprising: receiving audio information from amicrophone configured to monitor an environment; and using a processorcircuit: identifying one or more features of the audio informationreceived from the microphone; using a first applied machine learningalgorithm to analyze the one or more features, determining whether theaudio information includes an indication of an abnormal event in theenvironment; using a different second applied machine learning algorithmto analyze the same one or more features, classifying the audioinformation as including an indication of a particular event type in theenvironment; and generating an alert about the particular event type. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the classifying the audio informationincludes confirming or refuting the indication of an abnormal event inthe environment.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein using the firstapplied machine learning algorithm includes using the processor circuitto use support vector machines or a neural network to determine whetherthe audio information includes the indication of the abnormal event. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the first applied machine learningalgorithm includes a neural network-based deep learning algorithm. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the using the first or different secondapplied machine learning algorithm includes using the processor circuitembedded in a smart speaker device.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinusing the different second applied machine learning algorithm includesusing the processor circuit to use a deep learning neural network-basedalgorithm to classify the audio information.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the classifying the audio information includes identifyingwhether the audio information includes an acoustic signature of one ormore of breaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, a security alarm, a firealarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm, human voices, or human crying. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a loudnesscharacteristic of the received audio information and wherein theidentifying the one or more features of the audio information isconditioned on the loudness characteristic exceeding a specified minimumloudness threshold.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifyingthe one or more features of the audio information includes determining apower spectrum or spectrogram, and wherein the determining whether theaudio information includes the indication of the abnormal event includesusing the power spectrum or spectrogram.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the generating the alert includes communicating an alert to auser who is associated with a smart speaker, wherein the smart speakerincludes the microphone.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprisingtraining the first and/or different second applied machine learningalgorithm using hard negatives by selecting, as training data, resultsfor which the algorithm provides a false alarm.
 12. The method of claim1, further comprising identifying a multi-dimensional spectrogram basedon the audio information from the microphone; and wherein using thedifferent second applied machine learning algorithm includes using thedifferent second applied machine learning algorithm to analyze themulti-dimensional spectrogram to classify the audio information asincluding an indication of the particular event type in the environment.13. A system for performing automated audible event detection andclassification, the system comprising: an audio sensor configured tomonitor an environment; and a processor circuit configured to: identifyone or more features of the audio information received from themicrophone; use a first applied machine learning algorithm to analyzethe one or more features and determine whether the audio informationincludes an indication of an abnormal event in the environment; use adifferent second applied machine learning algorithm to analyze the sameone or more features and classify the audio information as including anindication of a particular event type in the environment; andcommunicate an alert about the particular event type to a user of thesystem.
 14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a memory circuitthat includes a reference data set for use by the first or differentsecond applied machine learning algorithms, wherein the reference dataset includes positive target samples and hard negatives, wherein thehard negatives comprise training data that is based on false alarms. 15.The system of claim 13, wherein the audio sensor and the processorcircuit are embedded in a smart speaker or camera device.
 16. The systemof claim 13, wherein the processor circuit is configured to use thedifferent second applied machine learning algorithm to classify theaudio information as including an acoustic signature of one or more ofbreaking glass, a gun shot, a dog bark, a security alarm, a fire alarm,a smoke alarm, a water alarm, human voices, or human crying.
 17. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the processor circuit is configured todetermine a loudness characteristic of the received audio informationand wherein the processor is configured to identify the one or morefeatures of the audio information only when the loudness characteristicexceeds a specified minimum loudness threshold.
 18. The system of claim13, wherein the processor circuit is configured to identify amulti-dimensional spectrogram of the audio information, and wherein theone or more features of the audio information includes the spectrogram.19. A smart speaker for monitoring activities in an environment, thesmart speaker comprising: an audio receiver circuit configured toreceive acoustic information from a microphone in an environment andgenerate a series of overlapping audio sample frames representative ofthe acoustic information; and a processor circuit configured to:identify a power spectrum of the acoustic information received from themicrophone when the power spectrum indicates that the acousticinformation includes an audible event and the audible event has greaterthan a specified threshold loudness characteristic; use a first appliedmachine learning algorithm to analyze the power spectrum of the acousticinformation and determine whether the acoustic information includes anindication of an abnormal event in the environment; use a neuralnetwork-based deep learning algorithm to analyze the same power spectrumof the acoustic information and classify the acoustic information asincluding an indication of a particular event type in the environment;and communicate an alert about the particular event type to a user ofthe system.
 20. The smart speaker of claim 19, wherein the processorcircuit is configured to classify the acoustic information as includingan acoustic signature of one or more of breaking glass, a gun shot, adog bark, a security alarm, a fire alarm, a smoke alarm, a water alarm,human voices, or human crying, and wherein the processor circuit isconfigured to communicate to the user a portion of the acousticinformation that corresponds to the acoustic signature.